I like creating components of various objects to place as needed about my model. However it seems that any time I create a bit of 3D text, it is saved as a component. This results in a mountain of text components burying my few object components and making them difficult to locate in the component list. Is there a way to keep Sketchup from automatically making a component from every bit of 3D text? If not, how do I erase all of these un-needed components? (“purge unused components” does not work, as all those bits of text are in use in my model)
No. 3D Text will always be created as components. You can explode them though and then make them groups. Once you’ve done that you can purge the unused components from your model.
Out of curiosity, how are you using all this 3D text? Maybe there’s a better way.
I am sketching various floor plans for a house and I want to label components like “bed” or “sink”. I have prefered 3D text to the text callout windows, as the windows sometimes disappear when the model is orbited.
If you were using Sketchup Make 2017 (still free for non-commercial use) you could use a plugin. There’s one called FlatText which comes in two or three versions, at least one of which is free. It’s on the Extension Warehouse. I’d recommend it for your type of use. Uses low-poly fonts with no thickness, so adds less to the edges and face in the model than does 3D Text.
There’s a limited select of fonts in the free version - only four, I think.
Can’t remember if the paid for one allows a choice of fonts. Probably not, as I understand it is very difficult to manage fonts from Ruby.
FlatText creates groups, not components, so wouldn’t clutter the component browser.
These are good suggestions, but I don’t have the time to learn any new features unless I really need them. I had the idea that when I title a component which is an l object I will actually use, I start the title with “A_”, so they all appear at the top of the alphabetical list and I can locate them easily.
Naming components “A_…” helps organize them, but I would still like to remove some components from the list in the default panel. Earlier you said “You can explode them though and then make them groups. Once you’ve done that you can purge the unused components from your model.” I was not able to make that work. Can you give me a step by step?
That works for me when there is only one example of that component in my model. If there are multiple examples of that component in my model, it seems I must first find and delete all examples but one, then follow these steps.
Is there a way of easily finding all examples of a particular component within a model?
You could give all the 3D text entities a tag and turn off the visibility for the rest of the tags. Then you can see all of the 3D text entities alone.
Or you could explode and group immediately after creating them instead of waiting until after you’ve copied them around the model.
Copies of components can be turned into groups by editing one of them (double click), selecting all geometry (triple click) and then wrap that in a group (right click:Make Group)
Now, all Component instances have a ‘nested’ Group.
Close component (click outside the gray bounding dashes).
Selecting all instances and hit explode (right click: Explode) will remove all component wrappers and leave the group wrappers intact.
I like to label components with 3D text so I can easily locate and identify them within my model. Every time I write a bit of 3D text, it is automatically made a component, in addition to the component on which the label is placed. These small text components were burdening my components list, making it hard to find the components I actually need to use. This is why I asked how to remove components. The expert advice above tells me how to do that, but it is very time consuming, as I had dozens of them.
I realized it is more efficient to prevent these text components from getting into the components list in the first place. After I place the label component on a usable component, while the label component is still highlighted blue, right click and explode. Then purge unused components, and the label component goes away, but the usable component retains it’s label.
If you have a component you want to delete, you must first find all instances of it in your model and erase them, then purge unused components. In a large complicated model it can be difficult finding them all. To find them easily, open a new version of the component, open it for editing, add an object such as a very long red rectangle, close edit, and erase the component you just changed. Then long red rectangles will point to every one of the other problem components.
